Ford may stun us with supercars at the Detroit Auto Show

There are enough rumors of what Ford has lined up for next month’s Detroit Auto Show to get the mouths of gearheads across the country salivating.

Road & Track reports that the blue oval is ready to reveal a host of performance-oriented additions to its lineup at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in late January, including a successor to the Ford GT, a wildly popular tribute to its Le Mans racer, the Ferrari-fighting GT40.

And a new GT makes sense. We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of Ford’s first victory at the 24 hours of Le Mans. Accordingly, there’s already chatter that the brand may return to endurance racing with a brand new GTE-spec vehicle, one that would warrant a street legal variant, … and we may not have to wait long at all to see it.

But wait; there’s more.

If a new Ford supercar weren’t enough, the Mustang GT350 might get even crazier in Detroit. Only having just been revealed, rumors suggest the latest super pony car might be offered in a new race variant: The GT350R. Much like the Boss 302 Laguna Seca, the GT350R will predictably take the 500 horsepower and other improvements the GT350 promises, and build upon them with a fiercer aero package and stripping out the creature comforts.

If the Boss 302 was last gen’s store-bought race car, then the F-150 Raptor was certainly Ford’s buyable monster truck desert racer. The successful sport variant of the F-150 pickup is mentioned amongst the R&T rumors as also starting a new generation, which can only mean there will be more Dukes of Hazzard-style truck jumping to look forward to.

All these rumors seem to add up to the conclusion that Ford is ramping up to announce their own performance sub brand, much like the Mercedes-AMG division or BMW’s M branch. This will give Ford a chance to unify all its performance vehicles, giving us an easier time to keep track of their STs RSs and SVTs.

Nothing is set in stone just yet, but if these rumors turn out to be true, then American muscle fans just got themselves a second Christmas.